MINUTES OF THE BUSINESS MEETING ON JANUARY

Transcription

1 Eastern Massachusetts Soccer Officials Association Minutes of 2017 Annual Business Meeting Sunday, January 7, 2018 VFW Post 2498, 20 Junction St, Needham, MA Present: Executive Board: Jeff Cooper, Mike Kelley, Randy Ellis, Wayne Brown, Bill Carey, Ric Beaudoin, Marty Ford, Frederick Rich, Mike Pelletier, Jim Livingston, Jim Quinn, Roger Stone, Ed Rae, Tom Stagliano, Tim Butler, Cheryl Welsh Delegates: (South) Bob Stowell, Juan Aguilar, Pat Donovan, Dennis La Versa, Janet Sullivan, Robert Thielker, Jack Mitchell, Bill Adams, Michelle Beagan (alternate) (West) John Schoenhalter, Peter Robinson, Ron Yankum, Cara Pember (North) Ashley Stevens, Joe Farragher, Martin Manuelian, Aldo Tramontozzi, Adam Tocci, Ron Kern, Bruce Mackey Members: Jeffrey Blonder Absent Executive Board: Fred Corey, Cal Perry, Kevin Canty, Colum Desmond, Walter Mortimer Delegates: (South) Joe D'Amico, (West) Dan Murphy, Doug Tracia, Larry Poirier, Matt Stein, Tom Fletcher, Dennis Alves, Mary Fitzgerald (North) Glenn Lavalee, Peter Jackson The meeting was called to order by President Jeff Cooper at 1:35 pm. MINUTES OF THE BUSINESS MEETING ON JANUARY 22, 2017 were presented and accepted unanimously without discussion. REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT: Jeff mentioned some of the highlight of Congratulations were expressed for all the members who participated in the post-season tournament. There were no major issues and MIAA was happy. Jeff and Michelle Beagan met with the MIAA staff and reported on the difficulty in finding new officials. This was the first year that EMSOA operated with a budget MIAA background check will be required for most members in 2018

2 ELECTION OF OFFICERS The office of President for a 2 year term was open for election. Jeff Cooper was the only nominee. He was declared elected by unanimous consent. The office of Vice President for a 2 year term was open for election. Jim Quinn was the only nominee. He was declared elected by unanimous consent. The office of EMSOA Secretary/Treasurer for a 3 years term was open for election. Frederick Rich was the only nominee. He was declared elected by unanimous consent. The office of North Director of Assessment for a 3 years term was open for election. Mike Pelletier was the only nominee. He was declared elected by unanimous consent. The office of South Director of Assessment for a 3 years term was open for election. Walter Mortimer was the only nominee. He was declared elected by unanimous consent. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY/TREASURER was presented by Frederick Rich Membership Report As of 1-Jan- 1-Jan- Jan 1, 1-Jan Active Members Inactive Members Military Duty Total Membership Retired Life Members Members who failed to attend Rules Mtg w/o being excused (Many were inactive but failed to inform EMSOA.) New Members (2 more took clinic to become CMSOA members) Members who have not paid dues as of Jan There was a discussion about non-members working games Financial Report The full financial report for 2017 with comparisons to past years is in the Appendix to these minutes. The report is given in both table format and in graphs. Expenses for 2017 are below previous years because (1) we did not spend as much on clinics and assessments due to the low number of new members; (2) we did not spend as much on rule books with the new procedure of giving rule book to all the members every 3 rd year and (3) we did not paying an account firm to do our income return. Income is also down due to the decline in new members.

3 Jeff Blonder suggested that EMSOA has too much money and is not spending enough on the members. He suggested lowering the dues and buying every member a gift certificate to Official Sports to defray the cost of buying new shirts. He disagreed with the concept of having a year s worth of income in reserve. The Financial Report was accepted by unanimous consent. EMSOA Interpreter s Report was omitted due to the absence of Fred Corey COMMITTEE REPORTS Financial Oversight and Audit Committee Roger Stone reminded everyone that EMSOA is not a club. EMSOA is a corporation and the Business Meeting is a requirement of a corporation. Also a corporation has fiducial responsibilities. The financial running of EMSOA has gone very smoothly this past year. Directors and Officers Insurance has been acquired. Judiciary Committee Ric Beaudoin There were no issues that the Committee had to deal with during the 2017 season. Appeals Committee Cheryl Welsh The Committee dealt with several appeals due to issues such as not paying dues on time or not attending the Rules Interpretation Meeting. All appeals were granted. There were 3 people who failed to follow through on the requirements given by the Committee and were not returned to membership. Assessment Program Ed Rae The number of assessments done this year were less than in past years due to the lack of new referees needing assessments and due to the lack of availability of experienced members to do assessments. With fewer referees, the experienced referees are working more games and are not available to do assessments. Jeff Cooper suggested sending a letter to all inactive members asking them to participate in doing assessments. MISOA Representative Tom Stagliano - Tom is the EMSOA representative to MISOA and the vice President of MISOA. MISOA is an organization composed of all the soccer officials associations in Massachusetts and is the official voice of the soccer referees to MIAA. MISOA has been trying for the past several to get a law in Massachusetts about assaults on sports official. MISOA has obtained and provided liability insurance for all high school soccer referees in the state. MISOA has set a uniform standard that the two officials on the field should look alike for in-season and post-season games and the uniform for post-season games will be the college (NISOA) gold or black shirt. MIAA Representative Cheryl Welsh A meeting of the MIAA soccer committee will occur in February to review the 2017 tournament. There was a meeting in August of the soccer

4 committee with representatives of all the referee associations. A major item was recruiting. All the associations have few members than needed to cover all the games. North Chapter Ric Beaudoin One of the North Chapter members nominated Lynn English Girls soccer team for the MIAA sportsmanship award and Lynn English won the award. This has generated a lot of goodwill for EMSOA. Ric thanked Rich Valle for supporting the North Chapter and EMSOA as interpreter and for many other actions that have supported the group. Two assignors (J. Paul White and Roy Condon) who have worked in the North area for many years are resigning. As a service to the members, the North Chapter has bought pizza, salad and soda for the member to enjoy at the end of each chapter meeting. This is possible because the venue for the meetings is being provided free of charge. West Chapter Wayne Brown A written report is attached to these minutes. In addition, Wayne mentioned that he is looking for a new venue for the 2018 West Chapter meetings. South Chapter Mike Kelley The South Chapter has never paid for the use of its usage of Hanover High School and that will probably be true again in All of the meetings in 2017 were well attended and successful. COMMUNICATIONS: During the year, there was a communication to all the members about the uniform policy for There was a very long discussion about that the EMSOA uniform policy should be in During the year, there were 2 communications to EMSOA about the quality of refereeing. One was from an unidentified person who ranted about poor quality refereeing without providing any specific. The other was from a Varsity player from a small who complained that all of his games had only one referee on the field. The reply to him stated that EMSOA was not being disrespectful of his school, but there was a severe shortage of referees which did not allow the assigning of 2 referees for his games. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None NEW BUSINESS: Changes to the By Laws: None

5 2018 Budget: Roger Stone stated that the 2018 budget had not been prepared yet. When it is prepared, it will be submitted to the Executive Board for approval and will be the guideline for expenditures in Recruiting and Retention: Jeff Cooper stated that this is a problem for all Boards of all sports in the past few years. He plans to make this his top priority in the coming 2 years. A motion was made to spend up to $5,000 to subsidize the purchase of new uniform shirts by all members or provide a $25 subsidize for new members to purchase uniforms. The motion was amended to remove the mention of uniform shirts and allow the Executive Board to find a way to spend at least $5,000 providing something of value to the members at the meetings in the Fall. The vote on the motion was: 1 Aye and Everyone else Nay. The motion failed. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 PM. I attest that these minutes represent a reasonably faithful record of the transactions of the Annual Business Meeting of EMSOA for Frederick Rich, EMSOA Secretary/Treasurer

6 APPENDIX FINANCIAL REPORT Financial Report for Actuals 2017 Budget 2016 Actuals 2015 Actuals 2014 Actuals Income Dues $38,006 $40,800 $40,539 $37,237 $41,478 Clinics $5,040 $9,920 $9,013 $9,261 $7,669 Fines $0 $0 $240 $546 $1,034 Other $386 $0 $402 $420 $0 Total Income $43,432 $50,720 $50,194 $47,464 $50,181 Expenses Admin $2,972 $5,000 $8,536 $5,209 $5,428 Business Meetings $879 $1,000 $886 $1,932 $1,085 Dues Refund $761 $1,300 $1,454 $1,833 $719 Clinics & New Member Pkgs $1,636 $3,500 $3,353 $2,700 $2,376 Recruitment $114 $400 $0 $0 $0 Exec. Board Meetings $1,226 $1,300 $1,656 $1,976 $2,471 Honoraria $4,350 $4,100 $4,100 $3,850 $3, & 20 Yr Jackets, Etc $2,015 $1,500 $1,367 $993 $1,356 Membership Packets $2,765 $2,000 $1,576 $2,237 $1,668 Rule Books $1,876 $1,100 $4,732 $5,824 $5,824 Chapter Meetings $3,560 $3,000 $2,851 $3,450 $3,822 Mentoring & Assessments $9,358 $7,500 $10,676 $10,520 $11,547 Arbiter $4,362 $4,500 $4,362 $3,480 $4,140 Insurance $2,785 $6,000 $3,145 $3,055 $3,185 MIAA Registration $0 $0 $0 $0 $3,594 Total Expenses $38,658 $42,200 $48,693 $47,057 $51,064

7 CHAPTER REPORTS West Chapter President s Report January 1, was yet another successful year for the EMSOA West Chapter. We continue to utilize all our meetings (as we have for sometime, now) as Active Participation Clinics, facilitated by our Chapter Interpreter, Ed Rae. Our focus is the continuous improvement and professional development of our officials, regardless of their years of service or depth of experience. Given that we have eliminated one meeting from our Fall Schedule, this year a condensed version of one of our Clinics was also presented at the Interpretation Meeting, following the presentation by Fred Corey, our EMSOA Interpreter. We will continue this for 2018, in the constant pursuit of development and training.

8 Ed Rae offered and conducted three clinics in 2017 for the training and certification of new members. Ed will continue to offer this training course schedule, three times per year (or more, if demands warrants) in Throughout the year (in season and out) I maintain regular contact with the five primary assignors of officials in our region: Jeff Kearney, Matt DiNapoli, John Buckley, Ken Moore, and Chris Jordan. This open communication with our assignors allows us to address issues of common concern and interest. In 2017, we welcomed our new Director of Assessment, Jim Livingston. Jim, in his usual professional, thorough, and thoughtful manner has added great value to our Chapter, and happily, Jim will continue as our West Chapter Director of Assessment for the foreseeable future. Our meetings in 2017 were held, once again, at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Newton. And we may well remain at that site. However, in an effort to possibly change this up and to provide a possible meeting place in another section of our West Chapter region, I am currently evaluating options in Waltham, Natick, and Framingham, and a decision on meeting sites for 2018 will be forthcoming in the second quarter of this year. We have also experimented with meeting nights other than the Tuesday evenings, which has been our practice since the inception of the West Chapter. We have given both Thursday evening and Sunday evening tests, and unfortunately these meetings were not well supported by the membership. That said, our meetings for 2018 will all be on Tuesday evenings. Our 2018 Meeting dates are September 4, October 2, and October 30. As is the case with all Chapters, the recruitment of new officials is among our highest priorities. We continue to reach out to various organizations and institutions to pursue more aggressive recruitment. Without doubt this is EMSOA s most pressing challenge, and we and the other Chapters must find ways in 2018 to accomplish this, if we are to properly service the schools in Eastern Massachusetts. In closing, I wish to deeply thank the West Chapter Leadership Team of Ed Rae, Interpreter, Jim Livingston, Director of Assessment, Jim Quinn, Judiciary Rep, and the irrepressible William Carey, our Board Rep. I am deeply grateful for all their continued efforts and support of EMSOA. Respectfully submitted, Wayne Wayne H. Brown West Chapter President EMSOA Past President COMMITTEE REPORTS Appeals Committee Report

9 The Appeals Committee dealt with multiple appeals over the past year, many as a result of non payment of dues or not attending the mandatory meetings. Multiple e mails and letters were sent by you prior to these appeals coming to this committee. For the most part we approved reinstatement with the payment of past dues as well as payment of fines. Three members did not comply with the requests from the committee and were removed from our rosters. Cheryl Welsh, Chairperson of the Appeals Committee January 5, 2018